hyperadmin
10-07-2009, 11:22 PM
Foreword
The Hyperactive Forums are a corporate forum. The content posted presents an image of the magazine, its staff and its parent company. As such, we have a strict set of rules that must be adhered to to ensure that a positive image is set and to improve the quality of discussion. This is a family friendly forum. This doesn’t mean that everything must be at a ‘kiddie’ level; rather, it means you need to deal with issues in a mature and responsible fashion.
The rules are not comprehensive and have purposely been left this way. This is to ensure that we have enough leeway to moderate appropriately according to the situation. While this may result in some confusion, we have a very simple rule: if you are not sure whether or not what you’re about to post is going to violate a rule – don’t post it.
Administrative decisions of the Hyperactive Forums are not by committee. All decisions with regards to thread closure and movement, infractions, permanent and temporary bans, and membership issues that are made by the Hyperactive Forum Administrator team are final. That being said, constructive criticisms and suggestions are welcome, provided they are directed to the Hyperactive Forum Administrators via a PM.
NOTE: There is no higher authority on the Hyperactive Forums then the Administrators. Do not contact nextmedia staff with your issues; contact the Administrators of these boards.
Prohibited Behaviour
Harassment
Harassment includes stalking, baiting, name-calling and other personal insults, and so-on. This often results from a clash of opinion or from the breaking of some sort of forum rule. If there is any POTENTIAL for a person to feel insulted, intimidated, tormented etc, it counts as harassment. There is a clear line between bullying and disagreeing. Disagreeing on fact is not bullying whereas persistent personal character attacks are.
Be respectful of other members at all times. Flaming or abusing (incl. bullying, belittling or humiliating) other members in any way is not acceptable. Any post or visitor message deemed disrespectful or defamatory of another member or party will be removed, and the poster will be at risk of being banned.
There is NO EXCUSE for harassment of ANY kind on this forum. If you feel that another member is trolling or flaming you, do not respond to it – you’re only making the situation worse, and you too could be in trouble. Report it to a moderator and move on. Members who troll crave for a reaction – if you ignore them, they will hopefully go away.
Please have respect for other members, their opinions and their actions, no matter how much you may disagree with them.
Spamming
Posts which add little to the discussion – whether they are irrelevant to the topic at hand, or add little to the discussion at hand (such as “I agree” or “lol”) – are not allowed. Spamming is not as strictly enforced in the Off Topic section; however this is not a green light to post the first thing that comes to your mind.
Before posting, you should ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to post informative, interesting, or making a solid contribution to the discussion in any way?” If it isn’t, please don’t post. Another rule of thumb that is often suggested is that if your post is less than a line or two long (at a standard window size), you're not adding enough to the discussion. Obviously there are valid exceptions, but more often than not if you can only think of a few words to post, it's not going to be worth posting at all.
Additionally, “In before lock” comments (or any comments to that effect) are not allowed, and will automatically result in a penalty being handed out. Similarly, continual abuse of the report post function is also not allowed. This function is there to report legitimate issues that arise on the boards.
Poor spelling and grammar
You've graduated from primary school, so you should be fully accustomed with basic spelling, capital letters, commas, sentences and paragraphs. This is not instant messaging - you don't have to rush typing - so minimum standards will be enforced. We don't expect "The Queen's English", but we do expect some effort. It helps to proof-read your posts before you submit them to make sure spelling and grammar is up to standard and to make sure that they read properly.
Prohibited Content
Racism/Sexism/Intolerance
Any remark (whether explicit or implied) which discriminates against a race, nationality, gender, religion, disability or social group is strictly prohibited. The fact that it is only a ‘soft’ or ‘common’ remark does not excuse such behaviour.
Obscenities, innuendo and general ‘adult’ content
We have a swear filter in place which censors the ‘f’ and ‘c’ words. Please don’t find ways around it. Be careful that any images/videos you post to the forum don’t contain prohibited words. Excessive usage of obscenities (regardless of whether or not they are filtered) is not allowed. Similarly, sexual comment and references to "adult" content (eg. pornography and illegal drug use) are not tolerated, except when part of a mature and relevant discussion. We are not total prudes, but you need to keep your innuendo at a "PG" level.
Warez, piracy and peer-to-peer discussion
Warez, piracy and peer-to-peer discussion
Abandonware and no-CD cracks fall under this definition. Please don’t hint or allude to piracy or illegal file transfer via P2P. All illegal P2P discussion is prohibited (this includes anything related to BitTorrent).
Additional Guidelines
Please note that some forum sections (such as Auction Hut) have their own forum-specific guidelines which must be followed.
If you are unfamiliar with moderated Forums like ours, please read through the Forum Etiquette thread. It is there to ensure that members are aware of the courtesy that should be shown to other users. Repeated failures to show courtesy and respect to other members can result in a penalty being imposed.
Penalties
Informal Penalties
On the softer end of the scale, your topic may be locked, or your individual post may be deleted or modified. Please take note of this – you will be expected to learn from your mistake.
Alternatively, you may receive a PM and/or a yellow card from a moderator who has a concern about your behaviour. This normally results from small but continual breaches of the guidelines and etiquette. They will address their concerns and suggest how to improve your behaviour.
Formal Penalties
If you have received informal punishment but have not taken heed of your warning, or if you make a more serious breach of forum guidelines, you will receive an infraction, a red card. As infractions accumulate, the punishment becomes more serious. Infractions may have one or more point associated with them, depending on the severity of the breach of forum guidelines.
Breakdown of Penalties
1 Red Card/Point: Loss of all bonus privileges and rewards. User will become a vanilla registered user.
2 Red Cards/Points: Signature is disabled from further modification, user will lose posting access to the Off Topic forum for three months. User can not use the tag feature.
3 Red Cards/Points: Two week ban.
6 Red Cards/Points: Permanent ban.
Alternate Accounts
Duplicate Accounts
If you receive a ban, please do not create a 'duplicate' account to circumvent it. Your 'dupe' account will be banned, and the ban on your original account will be increased as punishment. Similarly, do not share your account with other members. Each member should only have one account.
Account Security
Please note that it is up to you to ensure that your account remains ‘secure’. This means making sure you log out when using a public or shared computer, and making sure that anyone using your own computer does not use your Forums account. If someone else posts prohibited content under your user name and you receive a penalty, the excuse that “it wasn’t me” will not be accepted – accounts are password protected for a reason.
The Hyperactive Forums are a corporate forum. The content posted presents an image of the magazine, its staff and its parent company. As such, we have a strict set of rules that must be adhered to to ensure that a positive image is set and to improve the quality of discussion. This is a family friendly forum. This doesn’t mean that everything must be at a ‘kiddie’ level; rather, it means you need to deal with issues in a mature and responsible fashion.
The rules are not comprehensive and have purposely been left this way. This is to ensure that we have enough leeway to moderate appropriately according to the situation. While this may result in some confusion, we have a very simple rule: if you are not sure whether or not what you’re about to post is going to violate a rule – don’t post it.
Administrative decisions of the Hyperactive Forums are not by committee. All decisions with regards to thread closure and movement, infractions, permanent and temporary bans, and membership issues that are made by the Hyperactive Forum Administrator team are final. That being said, constructive criticisms and suggestions are welcome, provided they are directed to the Hyperactive Forum Administrators via a PM.
NOTE: There is no higher authority on the Hyperactive Forums then the Administrators. Do not contact nextmedia staff with your issues; contact the Administrators of these boards.
Prohibited Behaviour
Harassment
Harassment includes stalking, baiting, name-calling and other personal insults, and so-on. This often results from a clash of opinion or from the breaking of some sort of forum rule. If there is any POTENTIAL for a person to feel insulted, intimidated, tormented etc, it counts as harassment. There is a clear line between bullying and disagreeing. Disagreeing on fact is not bullying whereas persistent personal character attacks are.
Be respectful of other members at all times. Flaming or abusing (incl. bullying, belittling or humiliating) other members in any way is not acceptable. Any post or visitor message deemed disrespectful or defamatory of another member or party will be removed, and the poster will be at risk of being banned.
There is NO EXCUSE for harassment of ANY kind on this forum. If you feel that another member is trolling or flaming you, do not respond to it – you’re only making the situation worse, and you too could be in trouble. Report it to a moderator and move on. Members who troll crave for a reaction – if you ignore them, they will hopefully go away.
Please have respect for other members, their opinions and their actions, no matter how much you may disagree with them.
Spamming
Posts which add little to the discussion – whether they are irrelevant to the topic at hand, or add little to the discussion at hand (such as “I agree” or “lol”) – are not allowed. Spamming is not as strictly enforced in the Off Topic section; however this is not a green light to post the first thing that comes to your mind.
Before posting, you should ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to post informative, interesting, or making a solid contribution to the discussion in any way?” If it isn’t, please don’t post. Another rule of thumb that is often suggested is that if your post is less than a line or two long (at a standard window size), you're not adding enough to the discussion. Obviously there are valid exceptions, but more often than not if you can only think of a few words to post, it's not going to be worth posting at all.
Additionally, “In before lock” comments (or any comments to that effect) are not allowed, and will automatically result in a penalty being handed out. Similarly, continual abuse of the report post function is also not allowed. This function is there to report legitimate issues that arise on the boards.
Poor spelling and grammar
You've graduated from primary school, so you should be fully accustomed with basic spelling, capital letters, commas, sentences and paragraphs. This is not instant messaging - you don't have to rush typing - so minimum standards will be enforced. We don't expect "The Queen's English", but we do expect some effort. It helps to proof-read your posts before you submit them to make sure spelling and grammar is up to standard and to make sure that they read properly.
Prohibited Content
Racism/Sexism/Intolerance
Any remark (whether explicit or implied) which discriminates against a race, nationality, gender, religion, disability or social group is strictly prohibited. The fact that it is only a ‘soft’ or ‘common’ remark does not excuse such behaviour.
Obscenities, innuendo and general ‘adult’ content
We have a swear filter in place which censors the ‘f’ and ‘c’ words. Please don’t find ways around it. Be careful that any images/videos you post to the forum don’t contain prohibited words. Excessive usage of obscenities (regardless of whether or not they are filtered) is not allowed. Similarly, sexual comment and references to "adult" content (eg. pornography and illegal drug use) are not tolerated, except when part of a mature and relevant discussion. We are not total prudes, but you need to keep your innuendo at a "PG" level.
Warez, piracy and peer-to-peer discussion
Warez, piracy and peer-to-peer discussion
Abandonware and no-CD cracks fall under this definition. Please don’t hint or allude to piracy or illegal file transfer via P2P. All illegal P2P discussion is prohibited (this includes anything related to BitTorrent).
Additional Guidelines
Please note that some forum sections (such as Auction Hut) have their own forum-specific guidelines which must be followed.
If you are unfamiliar with moderated Forums like ours, please read through the Forum Etiquette thread. It is there to ensure that members are aware of the courtesy that should be shown to other users. Repeated failures to show courtesy and respect to other members can result in a penalty being imposed.
Penalties
Informal Penalties
On the softer end of the scale, your topic may be locked, or your individual post may be deleted or modified. Please take note of this – you will be expected to learn from your mistake.
Alternatively, you may receive a PM and/or a yellow card from a moderator who has a concern about your behaviour. This normally results from small but continual breaches of the guidelines and etiquette. They will address their concerns and suggest how to improve your behaviour.
Formal Penalties
If you have received informal punishment but have not taken heed of your warning, or if you make a more serious breach of forum guidelines, you will receive an infraction, a red card. As infractions accumulate, the punishment becomes more serious. Infractions may have one or more point associated with them, depending on the severity of the breach of forum guidelines.
Breakdown of Penalties
1 Red Card/Point: Loss of all bonus privileges and rewards. User will become a vanilla registered user.
2 Red Cards/Points: Signature is disabled from further modification, user will lose posting access to the Off Topic forum for three months. User can not use the tag feature.
3 Red Cards/Points: Two week ban.
6 Red Cards/Points: Permanent ban.
Alternate Accounts
Duplicate Accounts
If you receive a ban, please do not create a 'duplicate' account to circumvent it. Your 'dupe' account will be banned, and the ban on your original account will be increased as punishment. Similarly, do not share your account with other members. Each member should only have one account.
Account Security
Please note that it is up to you to ensure that your account remains ‘secure’. This means making sure you log out when using a public or shared computer, and making sure that anyone using your own computer does not use your Forums account. If someone else posts prohibited content under your user name and you receive a penalty, the excuse that “it wasn’t me” will not be accepted – accounts are password protected for a reason.